On Monday night’s Hockeenight PuckCast, and on our show in the past, we’ve mentioned some Blackhawks’ goal scorer in-detail statistics. The following is a full list of those figures for the Chicago Blackhawks 2010-11 regular season.

Here we take a look at where the Hawks’ goal scorers do their work; statistical data to back up who gets to the net and who doesn’t…. Which Blackhawks need to shoot more and who should keep it in their pocket…. and who has trouble getting their attempts on net.

Those of you who download the mp3 file can right-click here. The show is two hours long so its a rather large file this time around.

Dieter Kurtenbach joined the fray as well. We all gave our first-round predictions; discussed Alain Vigneault’s brain, Ben Smith’s game, Bryan Bickell’s aspirations to be the best $525,000 perimeter player in the game, an entire line of Frolik’s, Tomas Kopecky’s next contract, Electric Football, the Rockford IceHogs, sports writers ending sentences with exclamation points, Forklift’s bold prediction, Blackhawk Hope, keys to the series, Herb Abrams, the worst upcoming crop of 1,000 game players you could ever imagine, the “people’s prospect”, Micah Hoffpauir, USA Network drama, chicken nuggets in business suits and so much more.

It was a fun time as always with the Hockeenight guys. Thanks to them as always for sharing their time with us. Check out their show each and every week for a unique brand of wit and cantor you can only find there.

On the home front, I apologize for disappearing for the past week. I was shot down by a bad virus. And of course the timing was just perfect. I’ll have NHL awards, first round and playoff predictions up over the next two days.

You can put your pencils and notepads down. The only thing left to learn about these 2010-11 Chicago Blackhawks is how bad the “core” wants to win at this point. Too, how far they can drag the dead weight Stan Bowman has anchored to what remains of the 2010 Stanley Cup champs.

One look at Cpt. Scowl-face and the ever-present expression tells the story. This team can’t accomplish much if 50, 19, 10, 88, 2 and 7 aren’t hovering near perfection. Throw Marian Hossa into the mix and you might have something, but those who remember last spring and have paid close attention this season should know better than to count on him.

Brian Campbell has sacrificed some offense to be a little more dependable in his own end. He’s needed to. His partner for most of the season, Niklas Hjalmarsson, has been a mess for the most part. Good luck out East next year Nik. Campbell’s plus-28 rating is second best in the NHL right now. It’s a little misleading since his pairing draws the opposition’s secondary scoring line, but that’s no different than last year and Campbell’s offensive production has remained steady and his defense has improved, while Duncan Keith has gone backwards in both cases.

It’s about time we call a spade for what it is. Outside of the aforementioned, adding Dave Bolland and maybe Troy Brouwer, there’s a bunch of guys in this locker room who should consider themselves lucky to be Blackhawks for the time being.Continue reading »

Many moons ago, I somehow managed to graduate from St. Anne’s grade school. I’m reminded of this amazing feat due to a scathing review in response to a recent article of mine that was posted on the SecondCityHockey.com website. At first, I thought about replying to my critic, “Cliff Koroll” with a diatribe of my own. However, upon reflection I realized the former #20 car had many valid points. Certainly, my meanderings can no way be construed as contributing anything remotely connected to “insight,” on the Blackhawks.

If it’s insight you’re looking for, Fels, McClure and Killion are a much better option. Actually, if Koroll thinks I’m stupid now, it’s a good thing he didn’t know me before I started reading Chris Block’s in depth analysis on TheThirdManIn website. Chris’s “The Hawks record when various players are in the top five in ice time during a particular game,” obviously will increase your hockey intelligence quotient much more than I could begin to imagine. Personally, I like to take a more “impressionistic” approach to the game.Continue reading »

Chris Block and Dieter Kurtenbach of Blackhawks Examiner review all the latest news including the Antti Niemi arbitration hearing, Stan Bowman’s conference call, new contract signings and the Cristobal Huet “era” in this edition of TheThirdManIn~Radio.

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TTMI~Radio returns this Monday, August 2nd@ 8pm (central) to review the fallout in the wake of the Antti Niemi arbitration verdict, as well as all the scoop from the Chicago Blackhawks Convention (which we won’t be attending).

For anyone who is heading out to the Convention, we’d like to hear about your experience or anything of note that wouldn’t be evident on internet videos or reported by mainstream media outlets. You can send those to us at TheThirdManIn @ sbcglobal.net.

While the team hasn’t officially acknowledged this, the Blackhawks have re-signed left-side power-winger Bryan Bickell to a three-year, one-way NHL contract.

According to a report by Adam Jahns of the Chicago Sun-Times, Bickell will earn salary dollars of $500,000, 525,000 and 600,000 over the next three seasons respectively, while his “cap hit” (the average payout of the contract which comes down to total dollar value divided by length) will be $541,666 for each season.

Bickell, 24, who was a favorite of head coach Joel Quenneville in his limited opportunity with the club this past season and playoff, will become an un-restricted free agent at the end of the contract, summer of 2013.

It’s interesting Bickell’s agent would pin his client down to such a low figure for the next three years when Bickell has a big chance to play an integral role with the Hawks going forward. The deal is a steal for Stan Bowman. At worst, he has an affordable third and fourth line guy, salary-wise, being as cheap as they come. Enthusiastically, we could come to know Bickell as one of the bigger “bargains” in the National Hockey League two and three years from now.

I find it hard to believe Bickell couldn’t have negotiated a better deal. Two-years on a one-way for the same money he agreed to could have landed him in a position to enroll in the arbitration process in 2012, one year short of his UFA year (as it sits now in the current CBA, for players with expiring contracts who are 27 or older). As it looks now, Bickell could stand to earn a million or considerably more after the next two seasons should he see good minutes and continue to progress. While Bickell hasn’t shown near the same scoring touch, he’s not all that far behind Troy Brouwer in terms of iimpact he can make with this club. Specifically with the departure of Dustin Byfuglien, Quenneville needs all the size he can get, and thus Bickell will see a lot of important minutes if he can carry his level of performance over from the past spring. This is after all the same Bryan Bickell who fit in nicely in spots on a line with Jonathan Toews and Patrick Kane. That said, this deal could wind up more regrettable for Bickell should the new CBA push the UFA age back, or forward, a year or more when the new bargaining agreement is drawn (hopefully) prior to the 2012-13 season.

This is the kind of contract a young Canadian kid thinks is great when he first signs it. Then he changes agents two years later when he realizes he wasted a chance to make a lot more money at a young age.

Great deal for Stan Bowman. For Bickell, we’ll wait and see.

— Evan Brophey, Blackhawks 3rd round pick (67th overall) in the 2005 Draft, re-signed a 1-year deal on Thursday. This also hasn’t been acknowledged by the Hawks. There is a method to these things that go over the heads in hockey operations.Continue reading »